Welcome to The Next Chapter, blogging to you from the city of Little Fort, inside the extreme northeastern prefecture of Mikemadigani$tan, USA.

CAVEAT: THIS BLOG CONTAINS (albeit often very childish) ADULT-CONTENT.

REQUISITE BLOG DISCLAIMER: Entries at this blog are akin to good old-fashioned campfire chats; I offer no opinion on what you should or should not purchase, or what you should be using or doing. What does or does not work for me could be long country-miles away from your tastes and your needs. Any products, places, and / or whatnots that I review for this blog are purchased at retail price by me. I do not accept payment, gifts, discounts, freebies, products on loan, demon alcohol, drugs, plea-bargains, probation, parole, Presidential Pardons, or any flavor of sexual favors for doing any review.

EU TRACKING COOKIE NOTICE: Our Lord and Savior, The Almighty Gooooogley, bakes those scrumptious cookies and whenever The Almighty Gooooogley cooks something up it means everything related is for sale; it is possible that some of you good souls could be sold-out. The author of this blog sincerely appreciates the many visitors from inside and outside of the USA and feels obligated to mention that YOUR RESPECTIVE GOVERNMENTS (and / or employers) MAY KNOW THAT YOU WERE HERE and they may not approve of you perusing the blog entries regarding GUNS ... KNIVES ... SELF-DEFENSE ... CORRUPT POLITICIANS ... SELF-SERVING ROGUE GOVERNMENT AGENCIES ... GOVERNMENT SPYING ON CITIZENS ... Human Rights ... Freedom of Speech ... Life ... Liberty ... Pursuit of Happiness ... War isn't Peace ... Slavery isn't Freedom ... Ignorance is Weakness ... and all that other "subversive" stuff that worries the living hell out of the dictatorial elite.

Vive la liberté! Vive all y'all!

Ante omnia armari

To each of you ... Thanks for stopping by.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Dumb Luck Investing Update

Now that we are used to the idea of sub-prime mortgages failing, we get news that a substantial number of PRIME mortgages are also defaulting. When the A+ moneymakers can’t pay their tabs, it makes me wonder if things may be more calamitous than we realize.

We all know the words to these subsequent sad songs of recession. People are losing their jobs. People are losing their homes. People have record debt. People are losing credit worthiness and the ability to qualify for loans. People have negative savings, and many have negative net worth. People have raided their retirement savings, some to the point of ruin. People cannot afford healthcare or health insurance. People who have children, especially those that are sole providers, need divine intervention in order to survive.

We cannot eat our own flesh to provide nourishment. The availability of credit via low interest rates has usually been the stimulus for our economic booms; available cash rarely spawns an economic recovery simply because cash is rarely available. Currently, interest rates are not historically very high but lenders are only willing to make loans to sterling customers, i.e. people who really don’t need the freaking money in the first place. That leaves most people to stack more debt, usually just for essentials, onto their high interest credit cards, which further erodes their credit worthiness, and further erodes their ability to spend because of the juice they are paying on the card debts. Loan sharks are running and ruining our lives.

This sluggish economy may just hang around for years like an unemployed relative. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself needing to adjust to an even lower standard of living.

Wishing the very best of dumb luck to us all, it looks like we are certainly going to need it.

About Me

Superannuated, occasionally asocial curmudgeon with no hard major-party political affiliations ...
Second Amendment Foundation Patron Member (Committee of One Thousand) ...
National Rifle Association (NRA) Life Member ...
Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) Benefactor Member ...
I always vote ...
To the best that my life allows, I boycott anti-gun cities, states, and businesses. It's only common sense. I do it for the children ...